The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (190721).Volume V. The Drama to 1642, Part One.

VI. The Plays of the University Wits.

§ 11. Beginnings of dramatic criticism.

This play shows, too, as Gummere has pointed out, the peculiar subjective humour of Peele, which rests on something more than a literal understanding of what is said and done, a new appeal to a deeper sense of humour. He does not get his fun solely from time-honoured comic business, or clownery, but from dramatic irony in the contrast of romantic plot and realistic dictionindeed, by contrasts in material, in method, in characterisation and, even, in phrase. This is Peeles contribution to that subtler sense of humour which we have noted in Lyly. In Lyly, it leads to high comedy: in Peele it finds expression in dramatic criticism.